Smartphone rivalries can get fiercely competitive – with some fans adamant they’ll never switch their iPhone for a Galaxy or vice versa.

But the two companies behind those products – Apple and Samsung – remain firm favourites around the world.

Indeed, the latest data from IC Insights shows that Samsung sold more smartphones than any other provider in the first three months of 2016. The report details the top 12 smartphone suppliers in the world.

South Korea-based Samsung is top of the heap, with 81.5 million units sold in the first quarter. This sees the company building on the 322.9 million it sold throughout 2015. Apple was in second place with 51.6 million units for Q1 2016 and 231.6 million for 2015 as a whole.

After this, Chinese manufacturers accounted for the majority of the remaining places, with eight companies based in the far eastern country. These were Huwaei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, ZTE, Lenovo, TCL and Meizu.

LG and Micromax took the remaining places – and other major manufacturers such as Sony and Microsoft had dropped out of the to 12 altogether.

IC Insights said it does not expect there to be any middle ground in terms of shipment rates, with firms some companies consolidating their position and others struggling to keep up the pace.

A total of seven of the top 12 companies are forecast to register 2016 growth rates of six per cent or lower, whereas the other five are each set to log 29 per cent or better increases.

One key indicator of the maturing of the market was the fact that Apple and Samsung are each forecast to show a slight decline in smartphone shipments for the year ahead.